Charlie Rangel says the tea party is the 'same group' of 'white crackers' who fought to keep segregation

3 years ago

(Madeleine Morgenstern) Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel called the Tea Party the “same group” of “white crackers” who opposed civil rights in an interview published Friday.

“It is the same group we faced in the South with those white crackers and the dogs and the police,” the longtime New York congressman told the Daily Beast. “They didn’t care about how they looked.”

Rangel said the Tea Party should be defeated the same way segregationists were ultimately beaten.

“It was just fierce indifference to human life that caused America to say enough is enough. ‘I don’t want to see it and I am not a part of it.’ What the hell! If you have to bomb little kids and send dogs out against human beings, give me a break,” he said.

Rangel also had scathing words for House Republicans as a whole, accusing them of doing more damage to American competitiveness than Al-Qaeda, according to the Daily Beast.

“What is happening is sabotage. Terrorists couldn’t do a better job than the Republicans are doing,” Rangel said.

And Rangel said any “reasonable” Republicans are immediately placed in the party’s firing line.

“Chris Christie, who is a big Northeasterner, and people only go for Christie because he is reasonable. He says something nice about the president helping out Jersey and now he is on the hit list by Republicans,” Rangel said. “And now my friend Peter King is on their hit list. Peter King, a Republican, is considered a godd-mn communist.”